Update Thanks guys! Very pleased with those reviews, helps a lot with our spirits. Thanks for posting about the update. Big feature is the 3.0+ support so it can run on everything now. Hopefully it will be approved quickly. As for control changes we did some work on the camera and aiming is now more smoothed out and not so shaky. Also if you sail along aiming without any enemies the camera now pans and zooms at a slower rate to allow you to maintain and line up a shot rather than being thrown off by the sudden camera movement. Hopefully it should help and we will await feedback to do any more tweaks if needed. Thanks a lot for your support!
Update sounds promising, hope we get some new content soon though as at present the game has zero replayability value. Hoping for an endless, free roaming survival mode.
We have lots of awesome ideas for updates.. Lots of variation and gameplay thats not been done yet. Now we have our biggest fix update done thats the problems out the way. Now for more fun stuff I like the idea of a free roaming plunder fest too
Freeroam mode Lets talk about the freeroaming idea. What kind of gameplay are you thinking? port to port randomly generated levels or randomly created infinity levels that you can go anywhere in? Also what would dictate the end of a session? Just when you die? Also The structures you fight would only work if you were coming from the left going right, so would we remove those or keep them in? Maybe make the gameplay progress left to right but just go on forever? Let me know your thoughts
I think it should just go on from left to right forever. Random ships would appear, maybe a few islands, throw in a boss or two. After a certain distance there will be a port, where you can exit. Sorry, i don't know much of the game because i don't have it yet. I hope this helps. I also saw that the background can be night or day. If possible, the time of day might change from day to night.
There is a 24 hour Day-Night cycle in the game, so it changes constantly. So kind of play like the campaign but it can go for a long time with random events like storms, enemies bosses etc. Kind of like survival mode but with randomly generated islands, structures, powerups, ammo etc. Could be interesting. So theres always something new to play through. Would end up creating experiences not seen the campaign, Maybe you can choose short medium long or infinity level. So you can go as long as youre living if you want. Then we can extend it when we release new campaigns to include their new enemies, islands etc
I think there should be a mode where its continuous/never ending and along the way you can dock at ports to repair your ship, hire additional crew, upgrade your ship, buy ammo, and trade goods. You could have different randomly generated ports along the way with randomly generated goods prices and there could be a "drugwars" type thing where you buy goods (or capture them from other ships) and trade them at other ports. And depending on your amount of gold, you would reach different levels and earn new ranks. Also it would be nice if you randomly encountered infamous pirates along the way. Ones that are special and sinking/defeating the pirate earns you extra gold as a bounty. If you've ever played "Sid Meier's Pirates", you'll know what I mean.
What you just described are the actual levels in-game already (but the levels aren't random in game) For sandbox mode I was thinking more of a casual play area to just hang out and interact with the characters. Somewhere where you can't die. It would go on forever (no port). Another idea would be to add a randomly generated level like what Ace was talking about with enemies, etc.
Yeah meaning the random levels would create their own new experiences, rather than our predetermined levels. So you get a chance to experience new things. There will be lots of islands randomly created with people items, themes, size and events. So this would satisfy the playing around idea. Also we might be making the main menu interactive if we can work it out so you can mess around there with no risk. Also I like the idea of ports that you pass in this infinity mode. Its like the original flash game we made in 2007. We could have people at ports you can buy by dragging them into your ship like in the tutorial level and also ammo like the explosive cannon balls as items to buy. People repair your boat as long as they are on your boat.
I suggested making the main menu interactive a few pages back and I think it's a great idea for a sandbox mode. If the main menu can't be made interactive, then you can always make a screen that looks like it in the level selection menu called 'sandbox mode' where you can interact with everything on the screen and test all of your upgrades you bought.
Personally I'd like a 'free roam' mode where you can sail infinitely in either direction and the game randomly generates other ships, islands, sharks, monsters, weather conditions etc. And like LBG said, other pirate ships would be cool. No scoring or getting money, just messing around. Like when you play GTA and just run around blowing stuff up and crashing cars. And then a proper endless survival mode where increasingly challenging opponents are thrown at you until you die, with online high score tables. I'd also love to see more non-hostile elements to the game. The islands of natives are cool, although I didn't really enjoy the repetitive shaking/tapping involved to get coins and treasure. Maybe some civilian ships that can be plundered, and throw the people on board to the circling sharks. And maybe more sea life, or sea monsters - octopuses, giant squid, turtles, etc etc.
Awesome I am sure that everyone will have a ton of fun with it. I would also like to commend you for being so active in the forums, taking user feedback, and acting upon it. Well done!
This is a fantastic idea. The ability to stop at a port and partake in a number of different activities (trading, upgrading, hiring crew members, buying supplies) would be amazing. You could have a world map (doesn't have to necessarily be based on our real world) where you select which sea lane you want to travel along, and on the way you would come across other pirates, the Empire, islands with natives etc. Travelling to new ports would unlock additional sea lanes, and larger, more difficult levels would involve travelling to new continents, unlocking even more sea lanes. The obvious goal would be to dock in every port, and travel every sea lane, as well as maintaining a reputation in the various regions of the world (the world map would be split up into several pre-defined areas) - you can be evil and kill everything in your path, or pirates with morals (Robin Hood-esque) and only fight the Empire (sparing Empire soldiers who are still alive in the water, rescuing marooned pirates from deserted islands or people who have been shipwrecks, trading with natives, etc.). And the more evil you become, the more the Empire comes at you (but shops in port will be more inclined to give you a discount, etc.). ****ing love pirates.
Nice ideas there too. The last part I thought was especially good - about the morality system with good and bad deeds.
Let's make a game. I took a compulsory Introduction To C Programming course for my aerospace engineering degree a few years ago, and I can draw cartoon elephants pretty well. We're set.
Nice feedback and ideas! More wildlife, more moral balance and choices are definitely priorities for us. As well as new interactive items, experiences and events. Will keep your feedback in mind with coming updates.
I suppose the lack of universal support is to reduce cost, too bad for a game coming from a port so with graphics that could suit an ipad. I hope there will be a lite version, to try the gameplay but it's even more important for an ipad owner because it's never the same in ipad doubled so reviews and users comments aren't faithful as they are related to iphone gameplay. Also the lite version allows get an idea of how it will look doubled on an ipad.
